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The Archives
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08.01.10Metaverse Game Changer: MyWorld Starts to Pull Back the CurtainProject MyWorld will be a game changer for the metaverse: a virtual world that mirrors the real world and a platform for social gaming that could easily be the new go-to destination for the Farmville crowd. And Project MyWorld is clearly taking aim at Facebook: "Project: MyWorld is the “Placebook” for a next generation of social games. Project: MyWorld turns the real world into a 3D social gaming experience. Project: MyWorld is a platform for creating a virtual version of the real world and combining it with 3D online gaming and social networks and media." I was fortunate enough to have a sneak peek ...
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11.29.09A Virtual World with No People: Near Launches MondayA new virtual world launches Monday and will stagger the release of passcodes in order to deal with the mad rush of people who want to wander around a slightly better version of Google Earth in order to pick up coupons and look at shoes....or that's the impression given by the screen shots and videos of Near. The 3D shopping mall, er, world, was developed by NearGlobal and has Rivers Run Red as its creative partner. Rivers' prexy Justin Bovington, recently commenting on the launch of Second Life Enterprise, said that 3D content needs to be more relevant: ""It has be ...
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06.11.09Sun Microsystems Project Wonderland Gets Student LaborI haven't been tracking Project Wonderland as much as I used to - from what I gather there are still a whack of educators who are hot on the project, which is their open source approach to virtual worlds, and seems particularly interesting because of its relatively seamless integration of Web and desktop content - kind of a more advanced Croquet, with the usual affliction of many of the virtual worlds, namely blobby looking avatars that look like they were imported by There.com. But a recent report from Asia has me wondering if they aren't shifting some of their evangelism overseas, ...
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04.15.09Inside Blue Mars: Virtual World Promising Rich Content Creation OpportunitiesGoddess of the Grid Bettina Tizzy has a lengthy interview with Jim Sink of Avatar Reality on the forthcoming Blue Mars virtual world. Or worlds, if I'm going to go by my discussions with Raph Koster, because each world will be self-contained with its own rules and execution of code (LUA and a casual games API), joined together by a common portal and cross-world chat. Jim has encouraging things to say about the content development model, although it also sounds like there are some policy issues they haven't entirely worked out yet: adult-oriented content and sex, and the use of alts ...
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11.13.08Ancient Rome Virtually Reborn on Google EarthGoogle Earth has added an ancient layer with the launch of virtual Rome. According to one report: "The latest addition in Google's product release frenzy graphically recreates Rome as it looked 1688 years ago under Emperor Constantine. Users can take a virtual stroll around 6700 buildings, crafted in 3D in cooperation with the Rome Reborn project - a virtual reality project that saw UCLA, the University of Virginia, the Politecnico di Milano and others create a 3D model of the city in 320AD." But the operative word, I think, is "stroll". Because you can't. You can cam. Strolling implies avatar, which implies ...
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10.16.08New Second Life Viewer Let’s You Touch PrimsTateru at Massively has flagged the availability of a new viewer and includes the list of fixes, changes, improvement and other miscellany - and the list is almost mind-boggling in its length. Aside from lots of incremental usablity fixes (and I'm all for incremental as long as they're, um, incrementing in the right direction) there are a few things that I think are highlight changes with the new viewer: Support for Mono It's finally here. Took time to arrive but you can finally compile or recompile scripts using the Mono engine. . Originally promised for the first quarter of the year, Mono is ...
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06.06.08Google Earth Unbound – Is THIS Virtual Earth?Google Earth (GE) recently announced that it would make a plug-in to allow GE to run in a browser (thus far, for Windows only). GE expects to see its mashups on the Web, in its words, "with many more applications than ever before." GE is careful to note that the entire application is not being converted into a browser, but only that the plug-in will run, which will enable developers to create applications and enable UI features. While the plug-in will not have all the features of the full GE client, it is still a favourable development for developers who can ...
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03.27.08College Prof Turns to SLYou're a post-secondary English prof, and your students are bored stiff with the same old 500-750 word essay assignments. Not to mention, you are bored stiff teaching composition to freshmen. You toss around new ideas: group collaborations? Re-workings of classics of literature? Field trips? What does one do? Well, an enterprising professor at Macon State College in Georgia has decided to add some zing to his first-year composition class by having students write for SL. According to Dr. Gerard Lucas, "Second Life allows us to look at issues like identity, identity building, gender, sexuality and race. It brings all these ideas to ...
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